


Who Said Cable Television Was Free?

by bxton



Category: Legion (TV), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Character Study, just some rambling at 2:18 AM, their relationship hasnt blossomed yet just . excuse me.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-17
Updated: 2017-07-17
Packaged: 2018-12-03 07:09:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11527131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bxton/pseuds/bxton
Summary: She isn't usually such a downer, but one can't help but feel a sense of trepidation at the idea of socializing so soon after risking life and limb to protect the people that want to.





	Who Said Cable Television Was Free?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [eringilbert](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eringilbert/gifts).



> this is just a shitty thing i wrote and edited today,
> 
> the title is pathetic excuse me
> 
> this is gifted to my amazing friend peter who inspired me after writing such an amazing lenny/syd legion fic so thank you!!!
> 
> (ALSO this ship is so obscure and nonexistent but i do love me some good lesbian nat!)
> 
> twitter: kryptonys

Coruscating eyes observe the crowded foreroom of the Avengers Tower with disfavor clear in them. The work of Stark, without a doubt- the fraternizing side of him always seems to come out in the aftermath of, as Clint states, "little skirmishes, Nat, lighten up a little."

Natalia, not one to socialize during times she could be hiding in the walls awaiting the hushed whispers of secrets not supposed to be shared with others, favors her little corner of the room. Something by Billy Joel is playing over the big speakers installed inside of the walls and, while she feels like she came straight out of a teen romance novel, she can enjoy the gentle tapping of a piano accompanied by a harmonica and some guitar.

Piano Man, how did she forget? She remembers when Stark had come to her, drunk and half-to-tears on his mother's birthday. She had pulled him on to her lap and, as she rocked him, she hummed this very song until he was fast asleep. And, to add on to that pleasant memory, she even remembers a time the great Magneto would come to her. Looking half-dead and ill, he collapsed before her. Her hands gentle against his cheeks as she sang to him and her smile soft as he looked up at her.

  
She isn't usually such a downer, but one can't help but feel a sense of trepidation at the idea of socializing so soon after risking life and limb to protect the people that want to. How does she know no one here is an undercover agent? Sent to snuff out the weakest link of the Avengers in order to tear them apart? She is a woman who will not dare speak to mistrustful looking inhabitants for the safety of the team she's grown to call family.  
     Looking around the dimly lit room, with her wine glass just pressing against that sheen film of red lipstick, Natalia's only response to the bustling gathering is the arching of slick eyebrows and a glare at any of the men that decide to throw looks her way. Natalia Romanova will not lower herself to the standards of drunk, unkempt, slobbering, staggering party-boys that drag themselves through the doorway in an attempt to knock that bored contortion off her face.

Natalia isn't here for long. She's got her suspicions about one of the citizens living in the apartment complex a few blocks down. He had shown up unexpectedly, with a face she swore was somehow familiar- like a ghost from her past coming forth once more to haunt her. Suppose it was her fault, how she couldn't let the dying die in peace.  
Peace. A trivial word, if you think about it. No one is truly at peace, and Natalia learned this at a young age. You are at peace until something else comes to destroy it. Peace turns to war, and despair. A simple truth of the world and something Natalia won't pass on teaching others.

All too soon, the alarm on her phone signals her departure from Stark's rather loud party. She stands up, wiping her mouth and touching up the rouge shade that had smeared off on the wine glass, taking out pearl earrings she had snatched from a new work friend, and adjusts the dress she had chosen for such an occasion; black, short but long enough to hide her holster against her thigh.

"Leaving so soon?" The voice of Tony Stark rings out behind her. She turns, tucking dark strands of hair behind her ear.

"Sorry, sugar." She jokes, though with nothing except a friendly tone in her voice. She won't be so cruel to Stark as to ruin his party. She has a bit of deciency. "I've got places to be."

Natalia doesn't miss the way Tony's eyebrow shoots up at that. Is he going to ask a question? Maybe insinuate that she's seeing a man? Neither, and this surprises her too. Instead, he offers her a kind smile and wraps his jacket around her shoulder. As she walks out, she makes a mental reminder to bring back some coffee for him in the morning.

She is completely unreasonable when it comes to protecting her family and, for this very reason, she keeps where she's going a secret from the rest of them.

 _This is just to prove their stupidity_ , she thinks to herself-  
   -and pretends she doesn't know it's a lie.

   
  


It's cold as she's making her way through the neighborhood, feels like something you'd feel during Winter rather than the early days of Spring, and she is sure to cover her shoulders with the jacket snatched from Clint only hours before. She favors being alone more than having company- something about the heavy silence around her rather than the intruding voices of someone else ruining her alone-time. There's music playing from a little cafe across the street, probably open late for the business that a Saturday night usually brings. Everything around her is loud and colorful and she's smiling as her heels click against pavement. Oh, what she'd do to see the look on that Lenny Busker's face if she ever saw this.  _People_ , all sorts of people--  
       A long time ago, during a time she doesn't quite care to remember, a woman with the devil in her eyes bumped into her on the street and they had formed a friendship. Natalia, armed only with a knife and her fists, and Lenny, armed with something a little more sinister. In Russia, they were called Паук и Дьявол, the Spider and the Devil, for the way they danced around each other.  ****If you looked at the Black Widow, you'd see the following: Black, black hair in tangles, red lips, dark bruises, black, black, black. Black as the color of the woman waiting in your room at night and tangling under your sheets, hands still red after killing your child. She bares her teeth like an animal in the face of trouble. If you looked at the Shadow King, the great Lenny Busker, you'd see only red.  
  
She is snapped out of her daze by a car honking loudly by her. Natalia takes a deep breath, regaining herself, and continues her walk.


End file.
